santorini help

[benzygirl]

We are travelling next May on NCL Star to Santorini, and will be lucky to be the only ship in port. 2400 people

We will be there from 2-10PM. I would like to have dinner in Oia about 6:30, but wondering at what time would I have to leave Oia to get back to ship by 9:30, or do they wait for the cable car people to all come down?

 

 

Anyone know the best restaurant, as it will be a once in a lifetime for us!

[Wishing on a star]

oops, posted in error...

[Wishing on a star]

Trosebery, can you tell me which guide you used?

I have contacted one of the ones mentioned here on the boards, but am interested in other options as well !

[arduino]

We were in Santorini in June and I read many horror stories about the chaos when arriving in Port and I can say it was very stressful and a mess... we were a party of 6 adults who didnt want to ride a donkey or cable car so i did my research and found a private boat that picked us right up at the dock, no donkeys for us.....We designed our own trip, informed them we had to include Santorini as one of our stops, no problem, they arranged a private car to meet us once we sailed to a different area, the private car took us up the hill and dropped us off for a while to site site and drove us back to the boat.

 

We then sailed around the island, dropped anchor and we swam in the beautiful blue water while the captain went down into the gallery and prepared the most delicious greek specialty dishes..we got dropped off back at the pier where we took the tender back to the ship..Everyone was so envious of us ..Heard a lot of horror stories about long lines coming back down and people falling in poop of even being kicked by donkeys..do your homework so you get to enjoy the beauty!

[Wishing on a star]

Can you give any info, price, boat operator, etc...?

That does sound wonderful ! But, I am assuming that it might be too pricey for our budget.

[RAIDERMOM]

Hello. Sure. It was alex boat rental. You can find them on tripadvisor..all great reviews. I think the price was 750 euro if you paid cash ...we had three couples splitting the bill so it wasnt too bad ..:cool::cool:

[Wishing on a star]

Thanks, sounds amazing! I think I would do that if we found one other couple on our sailing.

[RAIDERMOM]

Just wantt to say you should get in line early for your tender ticket..We didn't realize we had to wait ion line....by the time we got downstairs the line was sooooooooo long..we were the 19th tender and would have been late for our excursion but we lucked out

[frantic36]

Hello. Sure. It was alex boat rental. You can find them on tripadvisor..all great reviews. I think the price was 750 euro if you paid cash ...we had three couples splitting the bill so it wasnt too bad ..:cool::cool:

 

Thanks for posting this information. We are travelling with another couple next July and this sounds ideal.

 

Julie

[ladylyn915]

Hello. Sure. It was alex boat rental. You can find them on tripadvisor..all great reviews. I think the price was 750 euro if you paid cash ...we had three couples splitting the bill so it wasnt too bad ..:cool::cool:

This does sound perfect. It is just hubby and me this time around - don't think I want to spend that much for just the two of us. Perhaps I will find another couple through our roll call.

 

Thanks for the info!

[CruiserBrooke]

We were in Santorini in June and I read many horror stories about the chaos when arriving in Port and I can say it was very stressful and a mess... we were a party of 6 adults who didnt want to ride a donkey or cable car so i did my research and found a private boat that picked us right up at the dock, no donkeys for us.....We designed our own trip, informed them we had to include Santorini as one of our stops, no problem, they arranged a private car to meet us once we sailed to a different area, the private car took us up the hill and dropped us off for a while to site site and drove us back to the boat.

 

 

 

We then sailed around the island, dropped anchor and we swam in the beautiful blue water while the captain went down into the gallery and prepared the most delicious greek specialty dishes..we got dropped off back at the pier where we took the tender back to the ship..Everyone was so envious of us ..Heard a lot of horror stories about long lines coming back down and people falling in poop of even being kicked by donkeys..do your homework so you get to enjoy the beauty!

 

 

 

Arduino- This option sounds amazing! I’m curious when you say that you stopped in Santorini what were you able to do with your time? Were they able to show you Oia as well? Thanks for the insight!

 

 

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[konazo]

Some ideas for your visit to Santorini...

 

 

Allow plenty of time for returning by cable car to your ship as lines get VERY LONG when many ships are in port; otherwise, it's 588 steps walk down, about 20-30 minutes.

[RLMSLL]

We will be on the only cruise ship in port in Santorini and plan on taking a private tour. Our guide is suggesting that we try to be on one of the first tenders in order to avoid a long line for the cable car. My understanding is that all tenders are local, not the ship’s tenders. It appears that the ship’s excursions will all tender to Athinios where people will board coaches for their excursions. Independent guests will be tendered to Fira in order to take the cable car to Fira. Typically will priority be given to the ship’s excursions such that all tenders will go to Athinios to transport passengers for the ships’ excursions before switching to service those traveling independently to Fira? If so, does this mean it is impossible to get an early start on a private tour?

[Wishing on a star]

Which cruise line?I. am thinking that with any cruise line, their own excursions will have priority Tender... And therefore those who are going on a private tour, or simply sightseeing on their own, will not be able to get an early start. This would probably be true, no matter if the ship is using local and/or their own Tenders.

 

I am no expert....

BUT, it stands to reason that if you are the only ship in port, then this should not be that much of a problem.

Now if there are three or more ships coming and going, then I think those lines become a bigger issue.

I understand that this can be more of a problem at the end of the day, when the majority of cruisers are wanting to head back to their ship. The more cruise passengers onshore, the longer the line might be.

[RLMSLL]

Which cruise line?

 

We will be on the Crystal Serenity, which will have a maximum of 900 guests. Normally Crystal will allow independent guests to leave as early as they desire, but the wrinkle in this case is that there is a different tender destination for independent guests as opposed to those on a ship’s excursion.

[Trish Traveler]

We just returned from our Med Cruise including beautiful Santorini.  We used Niki Olympic Tours (both here and in Katakolon).  She is a Rick Steves recommendation.  From the tender port where we were greeted, we were taken by boat to the dock below Oia, to take a mini-bus for our tour.  At the end, we were returned to Fira, with the option of cable car or donkey path down on our own.  This worked great for us, but only one ship in port, the tender line was still long coming down.  We chose to walk rather than standing.  

Niki Olympic Tours

Oia Experience   5.5 hour semi-private tour (maximum 18 participants)

COST: 82 EURO P.P. (CHILDREN UP TO 3 Y.O. JOIN FOR FREE)

(Boat trip from Old port to Ammoudi port of Oia – Oia village – Blue domes – Winery and wine tasting experience – Fira)

This tour is specially designed to avoid queuing up at the cable car and getting to Oia within a short period of time, giving you a very good chance not to be there later on when it’s crowded. The tour emphasizes in Oia village, where you will spend a total of 2.5 hours but also includes the Santorini wine experience and the Blue Domes in Firostefani. Tour ends in Fira where you can spend time before taking the cable car back to the Old port.

[Camillus112]

On 9/13/2018 at 7:45 PM, RLMSLL said:

 

 

 

On 9/13/2018 at 7:45 PM, RLMSLL said:

 

We will be on the Crystal Serenity, which will have a maximum of 900 guests. Normally Crystal will allow independent guests to leave as early as they desire, but the wrinkle in this case is that there is a different tender destination for independent guests as opposed to those on a ship’s excursion.

 

I believe you might be in the May 4-11 (Athens-Rome) cruise in Serenity, and we will be joining that cruise.  We have been to Santorini before, on Seabourn, and this time decided to take the ship's cruise to avoid all the stress and hassle.  However, we did not know we would be the only ship in port.  We could have probably gone independently... food for thought...